Ufenau Continuation III closes successfully at EUR 563 million

Pfäf­fi­kon (CH) — The Ufenau Conti­nua­tion III (“UC III”) fund was successfully closed with a volume of EUR 563 million. The fund was set up to invest in the two compa­nies Corius and Altano toge­ther with the manage­ment teams. The fund will provide addi­tio­nal capi­tal to support the compa­nies’ strong growth and conti­nue the successful buy-&-build stra­tegy that Ufenau V star­ted in 2017.

UC III was capi­ta­li­zed by a group of renow­ned inves­tors, led by StepStone Group as senior lead and Five Arrows Secon­dary Oppor­tu­ni­ties as junior lead, along­side seve­ral exis­ting inves­tors in Ufenau. We are proud that we were able to attract such a high-cali­­ber group of inter­na­tio­nal inves­tors for this tran­sac­tion. In addi­tion, we were able to offer our Ufenau V inves­tors a “win-win” solu­tion, with the oppor­tu­nity to earn a very attrac­tive return, or to conti­nue the buy-&-build stra­tegy for Corius and Altano by inves­t­ing in UC III.

Over the past five years, Ufenau V, in successful part­ner­ship with the manage­ment teams, has driven the strong orga­nic and inor­ga­nic growth of Corius and Altano, estab­li­shing them as market leaders in the D/A/CH region. Both groups have great poten­tial to further conso­li­date their respec­tive sectors and also expand inter­na­tio­nally. As a result, both compa­nies have increased their sales more than tenfold and made a total of more than 50 acqui­si­ti­ons in the last five years. UC III will conti­nue the successful invest­ment stra­tegy of Ufenau V and use the new capi­tal for further acqui­si­ti­ons and invest­ments to successfully imple­ment the expan­sion plans of Corius and Altano.

Ralf Flore (photo), Mana­ging Part­ner at Ufenau: “We are plea­sed to have successfully closed UC III and to be able to move forward with the next chap­ter in the deve­lo­p­ment of Corius and Altano. On behalf of the Ufenau team, I would like to thank the new and exis­ting inves­tors who have chosen to parti­ci­pate in UC III. Further, our thanks go to the manage­ment teams of Corius and Altano who have done an outstan­ding job and we look forward to conti­nuing these successful part­ner­ships. We are very confi­dent about the next phase and look forward to conti­nuing to support the expan­sion and success of both companies.”

Advi­sor Ufenau Capi­tal Partners:

PJT Park Hill: exclu­sive place­ment agent
Stephen­son Harwood
Legal advice: GÖRG, Arendt & Meder­nach and Walder Wyss as legal advi­sors for the UC III transaction.

About Ufenau Capi­tal Partners

Ufenau Capi­tal Part­ners is an inde­pen­dent Swiss invest­ment group based on Lake Zurich, which advi­ses private and insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors on their invest­ments in corpo­rate invest­ments. Ufenau Capi­tal Part­ners focu­ses on majo­rity invest­ments in service compa­nies in the DACH region, Spain as well as in the Bene­lux region active in Busi­ness Services, Health­care, IT Services, Educa­tion & Life­style and Finan­cial Services. Since 2011, Ufenau has inves­ted in over 240 service compa­nies in Europe. Through a renow­ned group of expe­ri­en­ced indus­try part­ners (owners, CEOs, CFOs), Ufenau Capi­tal Part­ners pursues an active, value-crea­­ting invest­ment approach on an equal footing with entre­pre­neurs and mana­gers. Ufenau closed its seventh fund with a volume of EUR 1.0 billion in the first quar­ter of this year and mana­ges a total cumu­la­tive capi­tal of EUR 2.5 billion.

About StepStone Group

StepStone is a leading global private market invest­ment firm provi­ding custo­mi­zed invest­ment, advi­sory and data solu­ti­ons to some of the world’s most sophisti­ca­ted inves­tors. StepStone mana­ges more than $548 billion in private markets assets. StepStone’s clients include some of the world’s largest public and private pension and sove­reign wealth funds, insu­rance compa­nies, foun­da­ti­ons, family offices and private wealth clients. StepStone is a leading inves­tor in the secon­dary market and acts as a solu­­tion-orien­­ted stra­te­gic part­ner for private equity spon­sors. Through Decem­ber 31, 2021, StepStone has ente­red into more than $7.4 billion in 156 inves­­tor-parti­ci­­pa­­tion and GP-led tran­sac­tions under its private equity secon­dary program.

About Five Arrows Secon­dary Opportunities

Five Arrows Secon­dary Oppor­tu­ni­ties (“FASO”) is part of the Roth­schild & Co. group’s merchant banking busi­ness with EUR 18 billion in assets under manage­ment world­wide. Five Arrows deploys Roth­schild & Co. capi­tal, along with that of a select group of leading insti­tu­tio­nal and private inves­tors, through a series of funds specia­li­zing in primary and secon­dary private equity, multi-mana­­ger funds and co-inves­t­­ments, and senior and subor­di­na­ted debt. The company has offices in New York, Los Ange­les, San Fran­cisco, London, Paris and Luxembourg.

FASO has been provi­ding custo­mi­zed liqui­dity solu­ti­ons to inves­tors and gene­ral part­ners (“GPs”) for nearly two deca­des. Its proven exper­tise in complex tran­sac­tions makes FASO one of the most relia­ble part­ners for GP-led secon­dary tran­sac­tions in Europe. FASO also shares the guiding prin­ci­ples of Roth­schild & Co Group, a stra­te­gic and respon­si­ble finan­cial services part­ner known for its crea­tive thin­king and inno­va­tive invest­ment solu­ti­ons combi­ned with a commit­ment to abso­lute discretion.